CHAPTER XXXIII. Expedition of Fernando de Soto.-Enmity of the Floridians.-Cruelties of the Spaniards.-Arrival at Vitachuco.-Plot to exterminate the Spaniards detected.-Battle of Vitachuco and defeat of the Indians.-The Spaniards make slaves of the natives.-A second plot of the Indians.-The Spaniards massacre their slaves.-They reach Apalachen.-Adventure of Capafi.-Prospects of gold.The Spaniards march westward.-Courtesy of a Floridian princess.-Singular behavior of a native. FERNANDO DE SOTO was the next adventurer in Florida. He had been a companion of Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, and was seized with a desire to rival Cortez in glory, and Pizarro in wealth. He made a proposal to Charles V. to conquer Florida at his own cost; the offer was accepted, and Soto was appointed governor of Cuba, with absolute power over that unlimited extent of country which then bore the name of Florida. The expedition seemed a brilliant and promising one. The Spaniards looked for another conquest as rich as that of Peru. Noblemen and wealthy proprietors were eager to embark in the enterprise; houses and lands were sold to purchase military equipments, ahains for captives, and other instruments for the subjugation of a people who were believed to possess immense stores of gold. Six hundred men, selected from a multitude of applicants, enlisted under the banner of Soto, and sailed in May, 1539, from Cuba. They landed, a fortnight after, at the bay of Espiritu Santo, in Florida. The Spaniards were well equipped for the undertaking. They had nearly three hundred cavalry, abundance of stores, bloodhounds, and a drove of swine, which would rapidly increase in that favorable climate, and afford them an unfailing supply of provision. They first marched against the town of Hirriga, governed, like all the Floridian states, by a cacique named after the capital. Soto had humane intentions, but the Indians held the Spanish character in detestation, and could not understand the justice of the papal grant, by virtue of which the invaders demanded the surrender of their country to the king of Spain. The former sovereign of Hirriga had his nose cut off, and his mother murdered by the Spaniards. It is not surprising, therefore, that Soto found himself an unwelcome visitor. His offers of alliance were received by Hirriga, with the reply that the heads of the Spaniards would be welcome, but not their bodies. Foiled in this attempt, Soto advanced upon the city of Urribaracaxi, which he found abandoned by the inhabitants. They next marched to another city, called Acuera, from which they were repelled; they now turned their course into the country of Acali, which they found free from the dangerous marshes that had so much incommoded them heretofore. Here they were received with an appearance of friendship; but as they were constructing a bridge to cross a wide river, hundreds of Indians started up from the bushes, discharging clouds of arrows, and calling them base robbers and other insulting names. They escaped, however, without any other loss than that of a favorite dog. The Spaniards next marched into the province of Vitachuco, which, contrary to the usual custom in Florida, was divided among three brothers. Ochile, the youngest, was surprised in his capital by the Spaniards, and taken prisoner; upon which he either was or appeared to be gained over, and undertook to plead the cause of the Spaniards with his eldest brother, who was much the most powerful, and bore the name of Vitachuco. He sent to acquaint him that these strangers were ascertained to be children of the sun and of the moon, and rode on animals so swift, that nothing could escape them; that they behaved in the most friendly manner towards those who received them well, but committed the ADVENTURES OF DE SOTO IN FLORIDA. 315 most dreadful havoc where they experienced contrary treatment. He earnestly exhorted him, therefore, to take the more prudent part. Vitachuco answered, in the most disdainful terms, that the solar and lunar descent of the Spaniards was a ridiculous fable; that whatever outward appearance they might assume, doubtless they were, like all the rest of their countrymen, traitors, murderers, robbers, and children of the devil; that, if they were the honest men they pretended to be, they would stay at home and cultivate their own soil, instead of coming into distant climates to expose themselves, by their robberies, to the execration of mankind. He afterwards sent messages to the Spaniards, filled with the most violent and indeed chimerical menaces. He told them that if they entered his country, he would command the earth to open and swallow them up; the mountains between which they marched, to unite and crush them; he would poison the water, the plants, and the very air. When, however, he saw the Spaniards continuing to advance, and learned from various quarters how very formidable they were, he assumed a different tone. He went to meet Soto, and made many apologies. His only anxiety now was, how he could do him the greatest honor. He tendered his own submission and that of his subjects, and wished to learn what quantity he would require of provisions, and of everything useful to him that his territory afforded. Soto received his submission in the most gracious manner, and professed his entire oblivion of the past. But the hatred of Vitachuco was still as deep and deadly as ever, and all this courteous seeming was only to cover a plot. The prince led the Spaniards to his town, and provided the best accommodation it could afford. At the same time, as if to do them honor, he summoned his warriors from every part of his territory, and appointed a day in which they were to be drawn up and exhibited in full array. He then disclosed to a number of his chiefs, that, on a signal given, they should fall suddenly on the Spaniards, and exterminate them at one blow. They applauded the scheme, and declared their eagerness to sacrifice themselves, if necessary, in so glorious an undertaking. One of them, however, communicated the fatal design to the Spaniards. Soto resolved to dissemble, and to turn the plot of the Indians against themselves. He expressed the pleasure it would give him to see the Indian pageant, and added that in order to heighten the pomp of so great a day, he would also bring out his own Spaniards in full armor and in order of battle. Vitachuco would gladly have dispensed with this honor; but he had no pretence for refusing; and, not aware that all was discovered, hoped still to effect his object by surprise. On the appointed day, the Indians appeared, drawn up on a plain in front of the town, having a wood on one side, and a range of marshes on the other. The Spanish troops marched out of the town, Soto and Vitachuco marching together at their head. As they approached the spot where Soto was to have been seized, a musket was fired, at which signal, twelve Spanish soldiers surrounded the cacique, and made him prisoner. The Indian army seeing this, raised a loud shout and rushed on to battle. Soto mounted his favorite horse, Azeituno, and with a too daring valor, which was usual with him, rushed foremost upon the enemy. The Indians met him with a shower of arrows, aimed particularly at Azeituno; and that gallant steed, which had so often borne its rider to victory, was pierced with eight arrows, and fell down dead. Soto fell with him, and was in imminent danger; but the Spanish cavalry instantly rushed on and charged the enemy. The loose infantry of the Indians were broken, dispersed and scattered in every direction. Some hundreds, the flower of the army, who had been placed in the rear, could escape only by throwing themselves into a lake. The Spaniards occupied all the shores, but the Indians continued floating in the water, and obstinately refused to surrender. They even locked themselves three or four together, on the backs of whom one stood and discharged arrows as long as they had any remaining. They waited anxiously for night, hoping in the dark to effect a landing and escape into the woods. The Spaniards, however, invested the lake six deep, and effectually opposed every attempt to land. In the morning the Indians were in a miserable state, half dead with cold and fatigue; yet they still turned a deaf ear to the urgent invitations of the Spaniards, who assured them of safety and good treatment if they would surrender. At length, a few, quite overcome, approached the shore; but the greater part, after touching it, again plunged into the water. When it was seen, however, that the few who landed were kindly received, others followed. By mid-day two hundred had surrendered, and in the evening there remained floating only seven, who seemed determined to perish in the water rather than yield. Soto hereupon sent out half a dozen of his best swimmers, who seized them by the hair and pulled them on shore. After they had recovered from their almost lifeless state, they were asked what could lead them to persevere in so obstinate a resistance. They replied that having been invested by their master with the highest commands, they considered themselves bound to answer such confidence by sacrificing them ADVENTURES OF DE SOTO IN FLORIDA. 317 selves in his cause. They felt themselves dishonored in having been spared by the clemency of Soto, and it would be an additional kindness if he would put them to death. The high loyalty and courage breathed in these sentiments were congenial to the ideas of the Spaniards, who even shed tears of admiration; and the seven, with general consent, were left at liberty to go to their homes. Soto at the same time used every effort to gain over Vitachuco. He admitted him again to his table, and assured him that however dreadful his conduct had been, the memory of it would be entirely effaced, provided he now acted up to his former professions of fidelity. Soto had thus far followed the course most likely to conciliate the Indians. This plan, however, having been adopted, it ought to have been followed consistently. But the Spanish commander, unfortunately, began to think that some penalty was necessary to deter other Indians from imitating the example of Vitachuco; and the plan he devised was the most injudicious that can be conceived. He caused his prisoners to be distributed among the Spaniards, whom they were to serve as slaves during their stay in the city. These proud chiefs and warriors were thus compelled to act as cooks and scullions, and to perform all the most menial offices. Soto, it is said, meant to set them at liberty at his departure, which was to take place soon; but he did not communicate this intention to Vitachuco, to whom it appeared that his bravest subjects were thus doomed to hopeless and humiliating bondage. That fierce thirst for revenge which had been lulled in the breast of this savage chieftain was awakened anew in all its force. The Indians were disarmed, but they were at large, and in their domesticated state had the Spaniards within their power., It appeared to Vitachuco that if each Indian killed his master, the detested race would be at once extinct. The plan was embraced with ardor, and the secret faithfully kept. Three o'clock, while he was at dinner, was the time fixed by Vitachuco for executing his purpose. At this moment he threw back his shoulders, cracking his bones in a manner peculiar to the Indians, and uttering a shout so loud, that it could be heard at the distance of a quarter of a mile; he then sprang up, and seizing the general by the arm, dealt such a blow, that Soto fell senseless to the ground, and the blood gushed from his mouth. The hand of the Indian was lifted to strike another stroke, which would have closed forever the career of Soto; but the Spanish chiefs, starting from the table, darted at once upon the cacique, who fell, pierced by twelve wounds. Meantime all the Indians had heard the loud cry, and, starting up, seized such weapons as their servile employment |